A recent Hillogism: Obama is the "establishment" candidate. (Part 3: Superdelegates)

Overview

"Superdelegates" are people who are delegates to the Democratic National Convention who are free to vote any way they choose at the Convention. "Pledged delegates" are determined before the Convention, and they are bound to cast their vote in a predetermined way. Given that the race for the nomination is so close, there is a very real possibility that the race will be determined by the superdelegates. Hillary currently has more superdelegates, and her campaign has said it is relying heavily on the support of those superdelegates. And superdelegates are definitely "establishment."

Refer to Part 1 or 2.1 for the definitions of "establishment."

What and who are superdelegates?

As the New York Times succinctly stated, superdelegates "are free to cast their votes at the convention as they see fit." In the terminology of the DNC Delegate Selection Rules, these people are known as "unpledged delegates."

The Delegate Selection Rules delineate some specific people who are superdelegates. These would be the "Party Leaders and Elected Officials" delegates. The name alone shows that these superdelegates are "establishment." Just to make that point clear, those listed as among this group are: DNC members; all Democratic members of Congress; all Democratic governors; and "All former Democratic Presidents, all former Democratic Vice Presidents, all former Democratic Leaders of the U.S. Senate, all former Democratic Speakers of the U.S. House of Representatives and Democratic Minority Leaders, as applicable, and all former Chairs of the Democratic National Committee."

The Delegate Selection Rules also allow for the selection of unpledged "add-on" delegates, or superdelegates who are not elected officials or DNC members. As explained on the Democratic National Convention website, "add-on" delegates are selected by the processes already established by the state party organizations for electing delegates. What this means is that someone really needs to have connections within the party to become an add-on delegate, and that means one needs to have some "establishment" connections.

The bottom line is that superdelegates are without a doubt "establishment."

Hillary loves her some superdelegates.

Right after Super Tuesday, Obama suggested that superdelegates should follow the results from their state's primary or caucus. On Feb. 8, he backed off that position a bit, saying that

The question for those not yet committed and the superdelegates that are still out there … trying to make up their minds -- my strong belief is that if we end up with the most states and the most pledged delegates from the most voters in the county that it would be problematic for the political insiders to overturn the judgment of the voters. And you know, I think that should be the guiding approach to determine who would be the nominee. I think it's also important for the superdelegates to think about who will be in the strongest to beat John McCain in November and who will be the strongest to make sure that we are broadening the base, bring people who historically have not involved in politics into the fold.

Hillary responded as follows:

Superdelegates are by design supposed to exercise independent judgment, that is the way the system works. If Sen. Obama and his campaign continue to push this position which is really contrary to what the definition of a super delegate has historically been then I look forward to receiving the support of Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Kerry.

I have to give credit to Hillary for the line about Kennedy and Kerry. That was a valid point. However, let's look a little deeper.

Hillary had at that time (Feb. 8) a very good reason for not wanting superdelegates to vote in accordance with the primary or caucus results, namely that Obama had won more of those contests. As of today, his lead in that respect has increased.

Hillary had another reason for her position. As CNN reported on February 9, "According to the most recent CNN count, Hillary Clinton has the support of 223 superdelegates, and Barack Obama has the support of 131." On February 12, CNN reported that the totals were 234 and 156, respectively.

And the Hillary campaign has made it clear that it is relying heavily on superdelegates. As reported by the Boston Globe yesterday,

Hillary Clinton will take the Democratic nomination even if she does not win the popular vote, but persuades enough superdelegates to vote for her at the convention, her campaign advisers say.

The New York senator, who lost three primaries Tuesday night, now lags slightly behind her rival, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, in the delegate count. She is even further behind in "pledged'' delegates, those assigned by virtue of primaries and caucuses.

But Clinton will not concede the race to Obama if he wins a greater number of pledged delegates by the end of the primary season, and will count on the 796 elected officials and party bigwigs to put her over the top, if necessary, said Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson.

"I want to be clear about the fact that neither campaign is in a position to win this nomination without the support of the votes of the superdelegates,'' Wolfson told reporters in a conference call.

"We don't make distinctions between delegates chosen by million of voters in a primary and those chosen between tens of thousands in caucuses,'' Wolfson said. "And we don't make distinctions when it comes to elected officials'' who vote as superdelegates at the convention.

"We are interested in acquiring delegates, period,'' he added.

Contrary to what Wolfson said, Hillary has made distinctions between delegates from primaries and those from caucuses, but that's another topic for another post. The point of this post is that Hillary is relying heavily on superdelegates. That means that she is relying heavily on the "establishment." And that means her claims that Obama is running an "establishment" campaign are laughable.